If you look at Jesus’ genealogies recorded in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:21-38, you’ll notice Matthew looks forward through the lens of Judaism beginning with Abraham. Luke’s record looks backward through the family of man, all the way to Creation.  Both display a remnant which is the theme for our 2022 Advent Devotionals.

Let’s look at Luke 3:38 “the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

This by far is the strangest.  Adam’s father is considered God because he was created from the dust of the earth.  Mankind was made in God’s Image beginning with Adam.  But with the fall of man came the need for a Savior.

Whose line would produce the Savior?  Certainly not Cain—the firstborn who had sin crouching at his door. He could not become the remnant.  Genesis 4:25 Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”

And here we see the beginnings of a remnant for salvation, not a family tree. 
This is important. 
Only one son of Adam would carry the remnant: Seth.

Genesis 5:3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.

Jesus’ lineage goes all the way back to the Creation of man with God the Father and Seth, the child in Adam’s true image.

Questions for further thought:

Why might Eve, the mother of all living, have associated the third-born Seth with being in place of Abel, her second born who was killed?

In what ways might redemption already be in the picture?

Why does redemption focus on the remnant and not promote the trunk of a family tree?

Wait, you might say, how do I know other sons of Adam didn’t form the remnant too?  Noah.  Stay tuned for Luke 3:36.

Prayer:

Father God, we praise You for the written record that we have of Your faithfulness all the way back to Creation.  We praise You and thank You for preserving this written word for us to read so that we might have encouragement that Your plan of salvation is from old.  We thank You for the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.  We ask, Lord, that You would make us people of faith bearing Your image in clear proclamation of the Gospel.  Thank You for this season of Christmas and for the work that You’ve done to give us hope of salvation in Jesus Christ our Messiah. Amen.

===

Advent began Sunday, November 27, 2022 and continues to Saturday, December 24th as we explore the remnant spoken of in Scripture and awaken as the end draws near.

 By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Awaken, Remnant” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

Acknowledging inquiries about an entire season’s devotionals for your study group’s planning purposes, Seminary Gal’s prior seasons’ Advent devotionals can be accessed via the archives to the right and are as follows:  

• The multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King was the theme of 2021’s devotional series. It is archived beginning November 28, 2021.
• 2020’s Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Can you imagine life if Christians were to look different after they commit their lives to following Christ? We could spot believers a mile away and focus our evangelism on those who still looked fallen…lost…or hopeless. But that’s not how it works.

The Spirit is invisible, but His actions are visible.  As Jesus says in John 3:6 “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Christians—as humans—will still look the same, but our actions should be visibly Christian.  Faith in Christ is not like a Costco membership where you can flash a little card you keep in your back pocket to get the benefits when you want to use them.

No, being born again is different.  It’s to be employed all the time to make our Christianity visible–by our love, by our faith, and by our actions in everyday circumstances.  It will show when Christ lives in us.

Paul says it beautifully: 

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Do you see how the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ
made an eternal and supernatural difference?

Christians are “crucified with Christ”.  And because we have been crucified with Christ, our old nature (including its sin, guilt, and shame) is gone!  We have a new spirit nature thanks to the Holy Spirit, and we’re born again in the likeness of our Savior. 

This can explain how Jesus could “experience” shame
without the internalized experience of guilt.
It was on Him, like second-hand smoke…
but only because that was the environment surrounding Him.
On Him. Never “in” Him.

While sin, guilt and shame may try to attach themselves on our flesh like they did “on Jesus”, they can’t get in because we’re crucified with Christ.  It isn’t “in us” anymore as born-again believers because it was never “in Him.”  Shame (as internalized) died when you were crucified with Christ. It’s in our environment–surrounding us all the time– but do you see the beauty of what Christ did and the freedom He gives? 

In Him, you can be free…truly free…from all sin, guilt, and yes, shame. 
That is good news indeed!

Seriously?  During Advent?  Yes.  With Kanye West and Kyrie Irving in the news recently over accusations of antisemitism, God laid it on my heart to address Jesus’ lineage and patterns of a remnant I see in the Old Testament, with the threads of a remnant winding all the way to Revelation.  I see a time coming soon when God will awaken the remnant. 

“So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.” (Romans 11:5)

What remnant?  I’m glad you asked.

Why do Evangelicals like myself often have such a soft spot toward “the Jewish people?”  Not all Christians do.  I know a few self-proclaimed Christians who hate “the Jews.”

One social media platform seems dedicated to disparaging all who share Jesus’ lineage and to do so while claiming to follow Christ.  To them, Christians have replaced “the Jews” as God’s chosen people though that is nowhere in literal Scripture.

That makes me think that maybe there’s more than one remnant…or the big-picture-remnant in need of the wakeup call is far more diverse than one nationality, people, and language. 

First, regarding “the Jewish people” (whom we will define as we go along).  The Apostle Paul writes, Romans 9:1 “I speak the truth in Christ– I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit… For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.”

OK, but there is a remnant.

Paul continues, Romans 9:27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.”

Wait.  Paul isn’t done.  Romans 11:25 “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in… 32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.”

The full number isn’t 100% (universalism), but rather, the full faith subset of the general population.  For Gentiles like myself, there is still a narrow gate that many people don’t consider important.  So, during this Advent season, let’s look at the remnant to be saved…among the Jews…and within the pews.

Awaken, Remnant.  The time is now. “The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11)

===

Advent began Sunday, November 27, 2022 and continues to Saturday, December 24th as we explore the remnant spoken of in Scripture and awaken as the end draws near.

 By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Awaken, Remnant” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

Acknowledging inquiries about an entire season’s devotionals for your study group’s planning purposes, Seminary Gal’s prior seasons’ Advent devotionals can be accessed via the archives to the right and are as follows:  

• The multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King was the theme of 2021’s devotional series. It is archived beginning November 28, 2021.
• 2020’s Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

No amount of good works we do can provide us with a new nature.  This was a hard lesson for me.  There was pride involved in doing all the good I could to distract from the sinner Scripture says that I am. 

I didn’t feel like a big sinner. 
I wasn’t an axe murderer, terrorist, con-artist, grifter, thief or anything. 
In fact, I was a “pretty good” person doing “pretty good” things. 

But no amount of good works covers that horrible trifecta:
sin, guilt, and shame. 
It was part of my nature as a member of the human race.

And so, I struggled with shame.  It’s still a weak spot for me because my heart desires perfection but I will not be perfect on this side of eternity. Only in heaven will it be so.

Before Christ and His work on the Cross, we had routine blood sacrifices of animals.  They substituted for us—in flesh—as a placeholder.  But when Jesus came, lived, was Crucified, and rose from the dead, there was a fundamental change of process for us. 

No more goats or sheep.  No!  Now we could be “born again” by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It’s a hard concept to be sure.  But it is essential to understanding the profound consequences of Jesus’ Crucifixion and His Resurrection. 

Think about this high privilege bestowed by our Lord upon a Pharisee when Jesus tried to explain it ahead of time to Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night.  Under the cover of darkness, Nicodemus stated,

“John 3:2 “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. “

4″How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”   (John 3:1-6)

It’s the new birth—through the Holy Spirit—that gives us a whole new nature and the power to live the Christian life.  This isn’t a flesh birth or a flesh death.  Jesus’ body was Crucified, resurrected, and He appeared to His disciples as the Risen Lord. That was His human body, but His spirit was always untouched. Think about it: our bodies still look the same after deciding to follow Christ, but the Christian’s spirit has been born again to a whole new nature.

“Born again” is a phrase that is often derided, but it is truly life-changing in its significance. Spirit gives birth to spirit–and means there is another realm we now experience.  We can live like it–free from sin, guilt, and shame–but will we?

Jesus was no whipping boy or scapegoat.  There’s far more going on here than punishment which happened when He took away our sin (which was both the offense and the point source of all our guilt and shame). 

Here’s the key: we don’t just start with a clean slate, as good news as that is.  Yes, our sin got “imputed” to Christ, and God accepted His sacrifice.  That’s the clean slate and it never needs to be repeated (Hebrews 1:3, 7:17-8:1), which is in itself amazing…

But, here’s something more glorious:
there’s an exchange possible
only because He is God Incarnate and He identified with us! 

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

By our faith in Him and His redemptive work, we’ve already received forgiveness for our sins, are able to reject our own moral agency through the power of the Holy Spirit, and then, His righteousness gets imputed to us in return.

Read again “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.  You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:3-10)

Just how was God willing to give us the righteousness of Christ?  Stay tuned…

Now, whether you look at the Hebrew language or the Greek language of the Bible, the very same word for sin is, at times, also translated sin offering.  Doesn’t make sense, right? From a purely human perspective, sin cannot be a sin offering.  But from God’s viewpoint, all our iniquity (sin) was laid upon Jesus by the hand of God the Father…like the High Priest did with the scapegoat sent into the wilderness from ages past.  

But there are huge distinctions!  Yes, our sin carried to death by Jesus as an act of divine obedience, a sacrifice.  But because Jesus is God and the obedient Son, it was also a sin offering by Him…completely righteous, perfectly holy, and fully glorifying to the Father as the purest and most holy of sacrifices.

Let’s look again at Romans 8:3-4. “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.“

Also remember, Jesus was no whipping boy,
no mere ancient scapegoat sent off to die. 
There was far more to the Crucifixion than just punishment for Jesus
while retaining our own moral agency,
enabling us to start each year with a clean slate to sin all over again.

No, our sin was “imputed” to Christ…as the hymn “It Is Well” says, “not in part, but the whole”. From a divine perspective, all the iniquity/ sin that was ours (humanity’s whole) was instead offered to God and paid for—in full—by Jesus’ blood.  

Jesus, who identified with us through His Incarnation, Baptism, and now Crucifixion…was made to “be sin”, in the likeness of sinful man for the purpose of being the sin offering back to God on our behalf. 

How did this do anything different than the scapegoat? 
What does the Bible say? 

“And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” 

Here’s what’s amazing:  no goat or sheep—even ones sent or sacrificed—could ever fully meet our “righteous requirement” like Jesus did.  How did He do that? Stay tuned….

As I continue to ponder whether Jesus experienced shame, there is no denying what the Apostle Paul was careful to describe: 

“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus had no sin.  That’s the easy part. 
The hard part is to understand what it means that He would “be sin” for us. 
And further, how could He “be sin for us” without experiencing shame?

Any of you who have read more than a few posts I’ve written may recall that I’m fond of analogies.  Even though they all fall apart when pressed, there are things that become easier to understand when I think of them via analogy.  Today’s analogy is iridescence.

The same iridescent fabric is—in fact—one color viewed directly.  But when viewed from one angle the light is interrupted in a way that it appears a different color, say blue.  View it from another angle and it appears another color entirely, say gold.  Is the fabric gold?  Yes, in the moment.  Is the fabric blue?  Yes, to our view at the time.  But is the fabric in its existence changed or just our assessment from the position we view it?  Could it therefore, be iridescent white while simultaneously be gold and blue to two different people from their directional perspectives?  Hold that thought.

Jesus was fully man and fully God…all the time He walked on earth.  That’s a mystery difficult to wrap one’s mind around.  Unless we ponder that His spiritual being is unchanged.  That’s how God the Father sees Him.  Jesus is always God….and existed in heaven before all time and as He remains forever into the future.  Therefore, His eternal view was/ is/and reliably will be spiritual, divine, holy, and righteous.  After all, He’s God.

As He walked upon the earth, though, He was made flesh and His perspective (how He viewed the world) was self-veiled divinity.  Note, however this is not a division in His being which would be heresy.  Jesus was undivided.  His light was self-veiled … “interrupted” in a sense … so that He would see as a man would: through the clear lens of pure humanity, as Adam and Eve were at Creation.  It’s how He could truly feel temptations but not give in to them.  He could see sin coming a mile away, but never do the sinful thing.  He could experience the pain of knowing what death did to His precious creation, feel grief, and even anger at sin and death.  More though, He could feel death personally in His humanity.  Yet God did not die.  Hold that thought, too.

Romans 8 has much to illuminate this idea: “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.  You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:3-10)

Two realms.  Two perspectives.  Same person Jesus Christ who “endured the Cross, scorning its shame” (Hebrews 12:2) but even as His flesh experienced death, “Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit My spirit.” When He had said this, He breathed His last.” (Luke 23:46)

He scorned the shame a crucifixion forced “on” His flesh. 
But His Spirit was untouched. 
He didn’t die as a superhuman,
but fully human with His mind governed by the Spirit in a fully human sense. 
His Spirit never died, though His body did. 
Same undivided Jesus. 
Two realms… the Spirit belongs with God,
but shame, sin, and death belong solely to the flesh. 

Yes, a lot of deep thought, but here’s where the rubber meets the road for us: if you’re “born again,” shame belongs to the old self, not the born again one as you are born of the Spirit.

There will never be such a lasting and consequential failure
as that of Adam and Eve in Eden
when a single bite of fruit from the forbidden tree
plunged all humanity into guilt and shame.

Nothing we can do will be able to cover our guilt and relieve our shame because it all goes back to God and our separation from Him.  And it all began with Adam and Eve, the first to experience shame and fear of God in the negative sense.

Shame and fear—both are rooted in guilt
because it’s guilt when we sin and fail to obey God. 
Shame is our reaction when we fall short or remember times we did. 

But short of what?  That’s the key. 
It’s the dividing line between those of faith … and those of the world.

Cultural anthropologists parse shame as arising from transgressing mere cultural or social values.  When it’s visible to others and exposed for failure to meet the world’s performance standards, we experience shame.

They parse guilt as privately sourced and dwelling in one’s internal values.  In other words, to these cultural anthropologists, you feel shame only when others see your failures to perform or conform, and you feel guilt only when you violate your personal conscience which is linked to your own standards of right and wrong. 

When the standards are personal—everything I do is right, maybe everything you do is wrong, then I am justified in everything I do—and that leads to a really warped view.  If the murderer of the Jews in the Holocaust can feel justified in genocide, or the killer or live organ harvester of the Uyghurs in China has no conscience about it, where is the guilt? 

Wow, it’s a really warped view when one’s standards exist only internally.

This explains why moral relativism is so dangerous, destructive, and why the age we’re living in seems to be spiraling out of control.  When we have no anchor, no external reliable truth sometimes called moral absolutes, there is no real conscience about sin or guilt. 

Moral Relativism is at the heart of many of the world’s problems. 
When each person has his/her own version of the truth
and what constitutes right and wrong, then who holds the moral compass? 
It’s the old “Who are you to judge?” taken out of context.

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you– who are you to judge your neighbor? James 4:12

There is One Judge, but culture denies Him.  We’ve turned away from the Author and Giver of the Moral Absolutes—our true compass for every human being.

With Jesus there was no separation from God, no sin, and no guilt. 

Adam and Eve—at one point in their lives—were just like that! 
But then enters stage left, guilt on the coattails of sin. 

Together, Adam and Eve sinned and separation from God was the immediate outcome (as sin becomes guilt).  They weren’t separated from God because they made a mistake or because God was a control freak.  Back in that day, nothing was a mistake because everything God provided was perfect…including His command. 

Even God’s command was good and protective. 
Adam and Eve just didn’t believe it enough to obey it.

Adam and Eve’s own will and moral agency failed them in their eagerness to be like God.  It didn’t matter their motivation in seeing “the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” or good intentions, perhaps, of wanting to be like the God who created and loves them. 

They didn’t believe God was fundamentally different from what they could become.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Fast forward to today when people make the mistake of believing good intentions and virtue signaling are enough. The world applauds and feeds the ego of the “good person”.  But God’s got perfect instructions for us in His Word (the Bible). 

Platitudes of “right-thought” abound, but as Martha’s Vineyard’s recent expulsion of 49 of the very people they claim to care about…the old “Not In My Back Yard”…in the end, these platitudes were exposed as fraudulent, a masquerade.  They’re not enough to save to eternity, earning it our way. 

Or like Adam and Eve thinking we can steer our own moral agency—even with good intentions and sincerity—all the while… violating what God says. 

Not one of those popular platitude signs says, “Obey God” or “Seek Jesus” or “We believe the Bible is Truth.”  Those are too risky, invite the FBI to raid your home, and don’t signal cultural virtue to the world’s onlookers and thought-police.

Just like back then, God’s Word is good and protective. 
We just don’t believe it the way we should.

Continuing our discussion of shame and whether Jesus ever experienced it, maybe we need to look at shame through a more biblical definition and to contrast it with guilt.

Here’s our history: When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, walking with God, and enjoying His full presence in the cool of the day, they were naked and unashamed.  There was nothing to hide.  Nothing to be embarrassed about in the presence of the God who created them and loves them.

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. (Genesis 2:25)

But then that fateful, life-altering choice to do what God had expressly commanded them not to do.  Blame it on the serpent, but the moral agency for behavior resided individually within Adam and Eve. 

Genesis 3: 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.  7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”  11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Now all of a sudden, they know they’re naked, and they’re ashamed and afraid.  Ashamed in front of God (obviously since there was no one else there).  And they were afraid of Him.  Afraid of His knowing.  Afraid of His reaction.  Afraid of what He meant when He said, “you will certainly die”.  What did that even mean?  So, they were afraid.

What about Jesus?
He is (and was) as Adam and Eve were before their failure.

Was Adam fully human back then?  Yup.  So, if Jesus is fully human and is (and was) as the original Adam was when the first man was created… (and as aside, Jesus being the Creator would know) …

Jesus was never afraid … and arguably never felt shame. He could recognize both of those consequences of separation from God when He saw them in us. I say “arguably” because it’s a bit more complicated as to how He could be without experiencing shame and still experience all that broken humanity suffers. There was no shame before sin entered the picture. And Jesus had no sin. He had glory before the Incarnation and has glory now. It is during the parenthesis of His 30-year ministry during the Incarnation that He did not have the same glory He once did.

John 17:1 After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.  2 For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him.  3 Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.  4 I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave me to do.  5 And now, Father, glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.

Read John 17.  Jesus finished God’s work…perfectly.  He honored the Father in all things.  From before the world began until the moment called “Today”, Jesus remains unashamed in the Father’s presence, and in His presence, there was and is no separation and never will there be.